It’s not socialism, technically. Consumers/governments don’t own USB and can’t contribute to it either, it’s just corporations.

You’re right, there are more important things than this (see right to repair) but I believe universal ports are a good pro-consumer step forward, whether it’s USB or if we start from scratch and call it something else :)

That’s where our viewpoints differ then: I’d rather have all the companies working together than creating their own proprietary stuff.

The “bad situation” in my opinion is when there are fractured proprietary solutions, it’s anti-consumer by design.

Unless you mean Apple (or any single company) creating an open standard all by themselves and sharing it for free, but then they have no reason to do it (no profit). More likely, they would share the burden of cost with other companies, which is essentially what USB is.

We’re in total agreement about the clusterfuck of naming schemes and feature support.

That said, there is no better port. USB 4 has the best display output, power delivery and data transfer rate capabilities.

This hypothetical “new best port” would literally just be USB 5, which hopefully is less confusing than USB 4 and will probably still use the Type-C cable.

Okay so we’re on the same page really. What I’m trying to say is that this design phase is already happening with Type-C and USB 4. This is what the engineers agree on.

Okay, which port would you like them to use instead?

Do you think companies want to use the port they’ve already invested years of R&D into, or be told to scratch it all and make a new one just for shits and giggles?

I did not say that.

USB was created for this purpose: standardization.

It all comes down to whether you want a universal port, or if you’re too busy drinking Apple’s anti-consumer koolaid ;)

That’s a valid reason to not buy Apple. Blaming the consumer feels like excusing Apple though.

We need to stop thinking “Apple fans vs Android fans” because it’s really more like “big companies vs all of us” :)

USB is literally the companies deciding “here’s the best port that everyone can and should use”, and they’ve been constantly updating it (see USB 4).

The companies chose USB-C, they made it, but since Apple ignored it for profits, the govt decided to enforce it.

Are you rooting for Apple? I’m honestly quite confused about your angle here.

This regulation is doing exactly that: spelling out the problem and giving the industry a deadline to solve it. That’s what this post is about.

Not sure why people think the government is incapable of simply allowing companies to follow the latest USB consortium standard in 5-10 years.

The pushback here feels oddly corporate.

Edit: USB is literally the open standard that companies agree upon. Check out the list of companies who decide USB design.

Imagine blaming the consumer. The solution here is regulating the giant corporation.